Chapter 15

Lug Nut
I’m sitting in the waiting room of the emergency room waiting on any news about Lilly's condition. I know she is in good hands since doc Ryans is taking care of her but I’m getting anxious for any news at all. She was still unconscious when they brought her and I’m worried. I look around the room at the rest of my club and see from the looks on their faces they are just as worried as I am. Thor has Trina in his lap, her head buried in his chest crying. Axel and Rowdy have Merigold between them, each has an arm over her shoulder. I have been holding Anne’s hand since they kicked her out of the exam room. We may be a group of hard ass bikers but when one of our own is down we all feel it hard in our core. We haven’t been rocked like this since Merigold was taken over a year ago. What is it with assholes trying to take our girls? Can’t they find any of their own?

I hear a door open and look up hoping it is the doc but it is just Prez and Tank. Ace sees them and gets up. “ Any news?” Prez asks. “ Nothing yet.” Ace says. He looks at Tank “ You got balls showing your face here.” Prez lays a hand on Ace’s shoulder “ Not here brother.” Ace shakes his arm off and walks away. All the brothers are glaring at Tank but no one says a word. Prez and Tank go to the back of the room and lean against the wall. I am happy that Tank was there to help Lilly. But after everything he has put Lilly and the club through I agree with Ace that he shouldn’t be here. He has no right to know how she is. Him chasing her is probably the reason she was hit in the first place.

We all waited for what felt like hours but it was probably more like twenty minutes before Doc Ryans and another doctor came through the door. The doctor we don’t know calls out “ Family for Lilly Reynolds?” We all stand and Prez approaches. Before the doctor can question Ryans answers “ Yea, they are all family.” He shakes Prez’s hand “ Viper.” “ How is she doc?” Prez asks, ignoring the other doctor. “ This is Dr. Mason Lilly’s neurologist. We are both going to explain her injuries. Let me start. Lilly is stable. That’s the good news. The bad news is her left knee is fractured. She has four broken ribs that cause her lung to collapse. We had to put her on a ventilator to help her breath and take the stress of her lung. Her left eye is swollen shut. She had numerous cuts that had glass in them and had to be stitched up. As well as bruising and some road rash. In time she will heal from all of that. The rest I’ll let Dr. Mason fill you in.”

“ As Dr. Ryans has said Lilly is in bad shape. But our pressing concern is that Miss Reynolds has a severe concussion and some swelling in her brain which is why she hasn’t woken up. We put her in a medically induced coma to try to reduce the swelling in her brain and will keep her like that for a couple of days.” Damn this is bad. I hear one of the ol’e ladies gasp and start crying harder. I pull Anne closer to me and hold her tight. Prez clears his throat “ Does she have brain damage?” His voice is raspy with held back emotion. “We won’t know for sure until the swelling goes down and she wakes up. I will keep her in a coma for two days then do another MRI to see where we stand. I know this is hard to hear but right now we just have to wait and let her body heal. Then we will know more.” Prez shook the doctor's hand “ Thank you doctor.” “ When can we see her?” Merigold asks. Ryans answers “ Let us get her settled into her room in the ICU. Then I will come get you. But we can only have two people in the room at a time. I will talk to the nurses and let them know it will be ok if someone wants to spend the night with her.”

After the doctors left Prez turned to all of us. “ I want these fuckers found now. They messed with the wrong crew when they went after one of our own and they won’t get away with it. I want the cameras around the club checked and from the business across the street. I want no angle left out. I want Lilly on around the clock guard. No one sees her with my ok. Got it?” A chorus of ‘ yes sir’ went out. I walked up to Prez “ Viper, I need to tell the band. They care about Lilly and deserve to know.” “ Yea, brother, make the call. Tell them they can come see her.”

While I was making my calls to let the band and Harry know what happened to Lilly and about her injuries Dr. Ryans came out to tell us Lilly was in her room and we could go back and see her. We all huddle around the ICU waiting room for our turn to go in. Merigold and Axel went in first. Anne and Rowdy went next then Thor and Tina. When each one of the women came out their eyes were bloodshot from crying and the guys looked like they were about to lose their shit. It was a mix of heartbreak and anger. I was taking the first shift with Lilly so I was letting everyone else go ahead of me. But it was hard to do. I have grown closer to Lilly these past few months and I was eager to see her for myself. I won’t be able to live with myself if she doesn’t make it. When Prez said he wanted to talk to Lilly I had know clue I was walking her into an ambush. That situation could have been handled so differently. If it had, Lilly wouldn’t have run out and we would be in a hospital waiting for her to wake up.